Fredi Beleri

The mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek city of Himare in southern Albania lashed out against the country's Prime Minister Edi Rama after authorities refused to grant him leave from pretrial detention to take his mayoral oath.

The Greek Foreign Ministry has slammed the refusal of Albanian authorities of the request by the detained elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, for special leave to attend and take the oath of office on Tuesday at the Municipal Council's first meeting. 

The swearing-in ceremony for the elected mayor of Himare in Albania, Fredi Beleri, is scheduled for Tuesday but cannot take place while he still remains in custody.

According to Albanian legislation a deputy mayor, appointed by a council of ministers controlled by the ruling Socialist Party, will have to take office.

Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare, will remain in custody following a ruling by the Anti-Corruption and Organized Crimes Structure special tribunal on Tuesday. Beleri had been appealing to be conditionally released from jail.

Kathimerini, being a prestigious newspaper, deserves praise for consistently bringing attention to the issue of Albania's treatment of its ethnic Greek minority, who primarily live in the south of the Balkan country. Here, however, I will switch roles. I will step into the position of an Albanian official in Tirana, responsible for monitoring developments in Greece.

The continued pretrial detention of ethnic Greek mayor-elect Fredi Beleri by the Albanian authorities is not consistent with the rule of law, the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

A Court of Appeal in Tirana extended the pretrial detention of the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare who was arrested over an alleged election crime, state-run broadcaster ERT reported on Thursday.

Fredi Beleri was detained just two days before local elections that were held in southern Albania on May 14 over alleged voter bribery but still won the mayoral race. 

Foreign Minister Vassilis Kaskarelis asked for the release of two ethnic Greek men who were imprisoned during a mayoral election campaign in Albania at a meeting with the country's counterpart Olta Xhacka, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.

The request was made on the sidelines of the informal Summit of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs taking place in Oslo.

Foreign Minister Vassilis Kaskarelis is on Wednesday expected to meet Albanian counterpart Olta Xhacka, on the sidelines of the informal meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Oslo to discuss the release of a jailed ethnic Greek official. 

Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare, was transferred to the Tirana prison hospital on Monday, after he felt unwell due to heart-related health problems.

It is the second time that Beleri has shown these symptoms in the last two days and he will undergo specific tests, according to press reports.